Dear Friends,
Dr. Putt hopes that you have found a little cool unstormy weather to play some golf in this summer. It has
been miserable here in the southeast. But at least the bad weather has given
Dr. Putt time to answer a lot of letters and do some thinking, though Dr. Putt
maintains that the thought process is severely reduced at temperatures above
about 80 degrees.
This newsletter will focus on three things that are pretty
much non-related – or maybe it is just too hot for Dr. Putt to see any relationship.
1) Putting – distance or direction?
2) The in-line putting stroke
3) Tiger and the apple of knowledge
1) Putting – distance or direction?
A recent article by Dave Pelz in
the July 2005 issue of Golf Magazine posed the question of whether distance or
direction was more important on short putts. He concluded that direction was
far more important as long as one hits the ball strongly enough to make it to
the hole.
The recipe for this is quite simple and is probably worth a
stroke or two a round. On short breaking putts, aim at the high side of the
hole and putt it firmly.
How firmly? Enough to roll it about a foot and a half past
the hole.
If you are a little strong, it may still fall in from the
high side (the hole is down hill of course). And if it is a little weak, it can
still go since you aimed at the high side of the cup.
On the other hand, if your aim is off, you do not have the
luxury of having a little error in speed. The speed must be just right to fall
in for a putt aimed too high and you would have to really ram it to get it to
drop if you do not allow enough break.
Of course, as all of you know, aim is what the EOB device is
all about. If you are aiming it where you want, then all you have to worry
about is making that firm stroke. Ok, you caught me -- no more commercial plugs
in this newsletter!
2) The on-line putting stroke
Dr. Putt has had several letters recently asking about how
to execute an on-line putting stroke. Whether to putt with the blade making an
arc or along the line of the putt has been a minor matter of controversy in
putting for many years.
Dr. Putt has sided with Dave Pelz
on this one. Pelz
calls this the “PILS” stroke – pure in line stroke. The reasoning here is
simple: keeping the blade on the line of the putt eliminates one variable in
putting. One does not have to worry about making sure that the arc of the path
of the blade touches the intended line of the putt (or is tangent to the line)
at precisely the right point. If that point is too early the putt is pushed to
the right. If too late, the putt is pulled. If one is on line all the way, then
too early or too late is a non-issue with respect to direction. Fewer variables
means fewer errors.
So how does one perform this stroke?
At
address your hands must be directly below your shoulders. Execute the stroke
with the arms and hands and shoulders in one piece by rocking the shoulders on
a vertical plane. If you do these two things, the blade will follow a straight
line.
To
make sure that you have the correct relationship between your hands and
shoulders, you might line yourself up in a full length mirror using a door frame
or some other vertical reference line in the background.
3) Tiger and the apple of knowledge
Several years ago Dr. Putt observed that Tiger was such a
dangerous opponent on the golf course not only because of his power and
accuracy but also because of his almost irrational confidence that he would
always win – the euphoria of youth. Dr. Putt also observed that once Tiger lost
a few he would start to lose some of that confidence and would become a more
fallible opponent.
It seems to Dr. Putt that this has happened. Although Tiger
is the most skilled all around player in the world and is in contention almost
all the time in majors (who can argue with a 1 - 2 - 1 finish so far in 2005), he is now looking
over his shoulder. He is not running away with tournaments when he has a chance
to do that. This shows up in his putting where he is three putting more than in
previous years and missing relatively short ones that could take all the drama
out of a tournament. In short, Tiger now has lost enough that he knows he can
lose.
So the door is open for Tiger to falter if only someone will
challenge him in a consistent way. Fortunately for Tiger, all others have
learned that they can and probably will lose to him in the crunch of a major
tournament. So opponents fall away even as Tiger fails to run away from them.
Lessons for us? Tiger improved his swing mechanics and that
has compensated for some of that lost confidence. We can improve our mechanics
even if we were never good enough (or foolish enough) to think that we could
never lose. For most of us, confidence
rests on a swing that we have practiced a lot and a swing routine that blocks
out all those times we did fail. And that is about the best we can do
One last observation on Tiger in the British Open – if you
watched his putting stroke carefully, you will note that he almost completely
eliminated the little forward press he has sometimes used in the past. Other
than that the putting stroke and routine is the same as it was years ago. When
Dr. Putt first observed Tiger putting, Dr. Putt noted that Tiger seemed to putt
better when he did not use a press with his hands before starting his
backswing. While a press may help the hands get started in rhythm, it also de-aligns
the clubface with the line of the putt.
Remember to check the “Dear Dr. Putt web site” for all your
putting questions – a search feature allows you to look up almost any subject
you like.
Go to http://www.drputt.com/deardrputt/deardrputt.php
Past newsletters are also on the index, so check back there
if you missed one. They will also come up using the search feature. They are
linked at the bottom of the “
http://www.drputt.com/Newsletters/
If you have not yet discovered the many advantages of the
EOB putting system, check it out. As most of you know, the EOB system really works!
Go to httl://www.drputt.com/overview.php
Dr. Putt wishes you (and himself!) some cool dry weather in
the months to come!
Best regards,
Dr. Putt
PS--If you want to be removed from Dr. Putt’s newsletter
list, please just reply to this email and ask. He will remove you – really!